10 Must-Know Tech Terms, Translated

From building websites to mobile apps, you need it one way or another to launch a successful business today. But understanding tech jargon and trying to communicate with IT managers can be challenging for many business owners.

Understanding common tech terms can help you recruit IT employees, know how their decisions can affect the business and ask them the right questions. Here’s a list of 10 must-know tech terms and phrases, translated for the non-tech whiz:

1. Wireframe: This is a visual guide that represents the blueprint of a web page and shows you what a page does, not just what it looks like. A wireframe contains the layout of the content, page elements and website navigation system, and shows how they work together.

You can draw wireframe layouts using PowerPoint or more sophisticated layout tools such as Balsamiq or Omnigraffle. If you need help, you can hire a wireframing expert, also known as a user experience designer, to guide you through this process.

2. Prototype: These are interactive demos of a website. Prototypes are often used to gather feedback from users before the project goes into final development.

A prototype can be anything from a paper sketch to a clickable demo. You can create clickable prototypes in PowerPoint or Word, or as PDF documents. There are also more advanced prototyping tools such as Axure and Mockingbird.

3. UI/UX: UX design, also known as user experience design, gives insights into how site visitors think, act and react when using the site or an application. UI design, also known as user interface design, teaches designers how to build layouts so users can easily interact with the page.

4. Minimal Viable Product (MVP): This is an iterative process of idea generation, prototyping, presentation, data collection, analysis and learning, so you can build web and mobile applications that help solve your customer’s problems. You launch your web or mobile app as fast as you can with as few features as possible, so you can collect feedback from users, determine how they are interacting and improve the product based on what you learn.

5. Agile Project Management: This is an approach to planning and guiding a project. An agile project is completed in small sections called iterations or sprints. Each iteration is reviewed and critiqued by the project team, and insights gained from the critiques are used to determine what the next step should be in the project.

Typically, each iteration is scheduled to be completed within two weeks. The main benefit of agile project management is the ability to respond to issues as they arise throughout the course of the project. Making a necessary change to a project at the right time can save resources, and ultimately, help deliver a successful project on time and within budget.

6. Modular Programming: This allows you to write computer programmes that are readable and reliable, and can be easily maintained or modified. Instead of having a large collection of code in one file, you divide the code into logical groups called modules. Each module performs one or two tasks, then passes control to another module. By breaking up the code into “bite-sized chunks,” you can better control and maintain large software systems.

7. Scope Creep: In project management, scope creep refers to changes or additional features that expand the size of a project beyond what was originally planned. This usually occurs when the scope of a project is not properly defined at the outset.

8. Version Control: This is a combination of technologies and practices for tracking and controlling changes to a project’s files: source code, documentation, web pages and more. This is necessary when you have multiple people working on the same files to ensure that they don’t overwrite each other’s changes.

9. Content Management System (CMS): A password-protected software system that provides tools to create and manage website content and doesn’t require any knowledge of programming languages. WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are examples of CMS.

10. Scaling Horizontally and Vertically: Scaling out applications horizontally means they run across multiple servers so that a single server or data centre outage won’t bring them down. Scaling up an application vertically means that your application works on one server. To scale up the application, you will add more memory and processing power to that server.

Nelly Yusupova, is a web technology specialist, consultant and strategist, and motivating and inspiring speaker. She is the CTO of Webgrrls International and has been at the forefront of the women’s movement online since 1999. She is responsible for building and maintaining the technical infrastructure of the organization that support the 100 chapters across the country and around the world.
She also works with entrepreneurs and teaches them how to use and leverage technology in their business.

Win 1 Of 50 Free Tickets To This Exclusive Event With Entrepreneur And Matt Brown Media

Calling start-up business owners or aspiring entrepreneurs 25 years old and under. Win a free ticket to this life-changing event with Entrepreneur Magazine, Matt Brown Media and South African entrepreneur Max Lichaba.

Are you a young, start-up or aspiring entrepreneur looking for inspiration from someone who started with nothing and built a R120 million business?

You could be one of 50 lucky, young start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs to join Lichaba Creations, Kwa Lichaba, Lichaba Custom Rides and Lichaba Refinery owner Max Lichaba on Tuesday 20 March 2018 for an exclusive two-hour lunch and in-person interview brimming with entrepreneurial insights.

Enter to win this once in a lifetime opportunity

If you’re 25 years old and under, and looking for business advice to help you build a successful start-up, then don’t miss this opportunity to receive access to the event, which will be held at Kwa Lichaba in Soweto.

2. A free Brand ID workshop with Vega on ‘How to Develop and Launch Your Brand’.

The workshop focuses on the importance of reflection and self-belief when offering your own personal brand and products to the world. You will be encouraged to explore your own values, meaning and purpose, and guided as to how to create an identity that will capture the unique individual that is “brand YOU”. The workshop will be hosted in Soweto or at Vega’s campus in Randburg, and the date is still to be determined

How to enter the competition

Tell us in your email why you should win a free ticket to this premier event.

What you will learn from Max Lichaba

Max finished school with a Grade 10 education, and was expected to become a miner like most of the men in his community. Instead, he focused on becoming a business owner. It’s been a long, hard road, full of challenges, but today he heads up a R120 million business. Share in his journey as Matt Brown interviews him in person, and unpacks his journey, the hardships he’s faced, and the lessons his learnt in overcoming those obstacles, including:

Wanting more out of life than being a miner in his hometown, like his peers and seeking alternative opportunities to make money and uplift his community.

The power of persevering even in the face of closed doors – they eventually opened up because he pushed through for long enough.

The importance of starting, even if you start small, by initially focusing on breaking even before buying into the fancy additions to presumably make business faster and easier.

Banking on a new business and losing it all, with the added responsibility of paying employees’ salaries and pension packages with money he didn’t have

Max will join a list of some of South Africa’s most successful billionaires, entrepreneurs and the CEOs hosted on The Matt Brown Show, on Tuesday morning. Matt’s 20 years’ experience in business strategy, technology and marketing communications and over a dozen local and international awards make this a discussion worth participating in.

Franchising Sector Ready To Lend A Hand

“We are at a moment in the history of our nation when the people, through their determination, have started to turn the country around.
Now is the time to lend a hand…
Now is the time for each of us to say ‘send me’…
Now is the time for all of us to work together, in honour of Nelson Mandela, to build a new, better South Africa for all.”
Cyril Ramaphosa, SONA 2018

The Presidents commitment to small business

The SONA speech by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his commitment to supporting small business and entrepreneurship has been welcomed by Tony Da Fonseca, the Franchise Association of South Africa’s Chairman, who in 2017 had already met with the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Trade & Industry to pave the way for greater co-operation between government and the franchise sector.

“We are encouraged by the President’s promise to increase co-operation with business and look at ways to encourage entrepreneurship, youth training and job creation” says Tony Da Fonseca.

“We are confident that the franchise sector can play a pivotal role through innovations like the development of social and micro franchising which hold enormous and largely untapped potential for the development of the economy and improve service delivery.”

Confirming that the growth of the economy will be sustained by small businesses, “as is the case in many countries”, President Ramaphosa confirmed that government would honour its undertaking to set aside at least 30 percent of public procurement to SMMEs, co-operatives and township and rural enterprises and would continue to invest in small business incubation. “It is our shared responsibility to grow this vital sector of the economy.”

Franchising is ready to play a larger role

As a sector that already contributes 13, 3% to the country’s GDP generating an estimated R587 billion through its 845 franchise systems, 40 528 franchisees and employing 343 319 people, franchising is perfectly poised to play an even bigger role in furthering small business development, skills transfer and job creation.

“As a successful businessman and former franchise owner himself, Cyril Ramaphosa is familiar with the far-reaching potential that franchising has in small business development, skills development and job creation, says FASA Chairman Tony Da Fonseca.

“We are hopeful that he will look to us in the franchise sector to assist in building that ‘small business support ecosystem that assists, nourishes and promotes entrepreneurs’ that he referred to in his SONA speech.”

That, together with the welcome measures by government to reduce the regulatory barriers for small business and the introduction of an innovation fund targeted at start-ups and small suppliers that could become supply chains to the franchise sector, will go a long way to opening the doors to small business expansion and the benefits to the economy that will flow from that.

The Franchise Association of South Africa (FASA) has always been a proponent of small business incubation and has, over the years, embarked on various public/private initiatives to grow the franchise sector. Their efforts have included youth cadet schemes through the Jobs Fund, developing micro businesses to become franchise-ready through the Department of Small Business Development’s Micro Franchisor Development Project and through various private initiatives with funders and franchise members.

The franchise sector to stimulate entrepreneurship and jobs

According to Tony Da Fonseca, much more can be done in the public/private development space. “The opportunities to transform government services, such as health care, water delivery, education and in many other areas, through the social franchise format, are enormous. Both locally and internationally, pilot projects in social franchising that operate on commercial principles, making enough profit to sustain operations and re-investing surplus profits into the community they serve, have proved to be viable.”

According to Tony Da Fonseca, the franchise sector is well-positioned to come together in a concerted effort to stimulate entrepreneurship and create much-needed jobs.

Franchising in South Africa currently services around 17 business sectors – way behind countries such as Australia, Europe, Canada and the USA who boast between 25 and over 70 business categories.

“The opportunities to expand into many more sectors and particularly in the social and services sectors of the economy are endless. We welcome the opportunity to work with government in creating an entrepreneurial environment that will grow investment confidence, introduce new small business concepts via the franchise system, accelerate BEE and enterprise opportunities, giving training to the youth and above all create those much needed jobs.”

Mr President, the franchising sector is ready and able to take on the opportunities for ‘renewal and revitalisation, and for progress to build the fair, just and decent society to which Nelson Mandela dedicated his life.’

How To Pick The Business Model That Works For You

So, you’ve picked your lane. You’ve decided what you want to do and why you want to do it. You’ve picked something you’re good at. You’re convinced the world needs and values it. You now need to decide how to make money. That’s where business model design comes in.

There are plenty of business model options for the same idea. For example, let’s say your idea is to offer historic tours of Cape Town. You could either do it yourself or hire professional guides to do it. Or you could use mobile technology to provide DIY walking tours. You could charge per tour or you could charge a membership fee. There are so many options. How do you pick the model that works for you?

The Lean Canvas is a great tool for entrepreneurs who are faced with this question. Adapted from The Business Model Canvas, it provides a simple, one page framework for brainstorming possible business models, prioritising where to start, and tracking ongoing learning. It walks the entrepreneur through the business model process logically and ensures the key elements of a successful business are considered.

My co-founders and I have used the Canvas extensively at Simply – for designing our business model, and for communicating it to partners and investors. The only thing you know with certainty when you start a business is that it’s not going to turn out as you expect it to. The Canvas evolves as you go – it was, and continues to be, a very useful guide in our journey.

Recognising an opportunity for disruption

We figured there was an opportunity to do something disruptive in the SA life insurance space. It was clear to us that lots of people were either not covered or getting a rough deal. Guided by the Canvas, we defined our first Customer Segment as adult South Africans, aged between 25 and 45 and earning between R5k and R30k monthly.

We then identified the 3 big Problems – specific to that segment – that needed solving:

Most of the people in our segment have some form of funeral cover, but very few have life or disability cover.

The cover they do have is often expensive relative to the benefits provided (i.e. a very small % of the premium goes towards the risk costs).

There is no simple, intuitive way to buy good value life, disability and funeral cover online.

Developing a value proposition

Next came the Value Proposition. We believed we could use technology, digital marketing and human-centred product design to deliver simple, online life, disability and funeral insurance at a great price. We felt we could be for life insurance in South Africa what Takealot has been for retail.

We thought the world was moving far faster than incumbents realised; that millennials were ready to buy life insurance online; that we could build for the digital world and be in the right place at the right time.

And the rest flowed from there. I don’t have the time or the space to walk you through the other elements of the Canvas here, but you can probably fill in the blanks. Suffice to say, the process was invaluable and enabled us to build our business around a clearly considered business model. It’s early days, but the signs are good – we’re making a positive impact, having fun and keeping our investors happy.

Creating a Lean Canvas

So, how should you go about sketching your own Lean Canvas? The team at www.leanstack.com suggest the following approach:

Sketch a canvas in one sitting. While a business plan can take weeks or months to write, your initial canvas should be sketched quickly.

It’s okay to leave sections blank. Rather than trying to research or debate the “right” answers, put something down quickly or leave it blank and come back to it later.

Think in the present. Business plans try too hard to predict the future which is impossible. Instead, write your canvas with a ‘getting things done’ attitude.

Use a customer-centric approach. You may need to sketch one Canvas per customer segment. Start with the Customer Segment and go in sequence.

The Canvas has brought clarity and a common language to our business model design process. It’s enabled us to agree upon and communicate our business model effectively – both internally and externally. It’s also allowed us to tune and adjust our model as our story has unfolded – an inevitability for entrepreneurs. I highly recommend the Lean Canvas as a tool for designing your business model. Give it a try – I think you’ll like it.